NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Precision BioSciences and Cellectis announced Thursday that they have settled patent litigation related to genome engineering technology and have agreed to cross-license certain patents.
The firms have been involved in litigation against each other for several years and they have filed multiple suits against each other over patents covering genome engineering and gene editing technologies.
In May 2013 the US District Court for the District of Delaware found all claims of Cellectis' US Patent No. 7,897,372 that were asserted in a legal action against Precision Bio were invalid. The '372 patent relates to methods of preparing I-CreI meganuclease variants "having a modified cleavage specificity."
Research Triangle Park, NC-based Precision Bio also had sued Paris-based Cellectis asserting 12 of its US patents.
The firms said today that they will cross-license certain genome engineering patents and drop their lawsuits against each other and patent challenges. The agreement provides "clear freedom to operate for both companies in the engineered I-Crel meganuclease genome engineering field," they said in a statement.
Further terms of the settlement were not disclosed.